A Better Route to Azure: How ExpressRoute connectivity partner Megaport brings value to Microsoft and the entire partner ecosystem

Azure ExpressRoute

Azure ExpressRoute is a service that enables customers to create private connections between Azure datacenters and their on-premise infrastructure or colocation environment. As Azure ExpressRoute connections are direct, they don’t rely on public internet, and offer more reliability, faster speeds and lower latencies than what is achievable over a typical internet connection. In many cases, using Azure ExpressRoute connections can enable customers to realize significant cost-saving benefits.

Megaport

For a customer to realize the benefits Azure ExpressRoute can provide, they need to work with an ExpressRoute connectivity provider to facilitate the connection. Australian partner Megaport is one of the most accomplished ExpressRoute partners in the world, supporting 18 ExpressRoute locations across the globe.

Founded in 2013 by founder and Executive Chairman Bevan Slattery, Megaport was the world’s first SDN-based Elastic Interconnection platform designed to provide a secure, seamless, and on-demand way for enterprises, networks, and services to interconnect.

Throughout his business ventures as a tech entrepreneur, Slattery discovered a key problem with provisioning connections between datacenters and external services. Having built one of Australia’s leading datacenter facilities, Slattery wanted consistent connectivity with services that didn’t have infrastructure within his facility. He aimed to optimize the provisioning process, and contractual process, making connectivity options broader, simpler, and far more streamlined. Ultimately, he found himself asking the question, “How can I do this simply from my phone?” From this idea, Megaport was formed.

“For the last three years, we have rapidly expanded our network and one of the biggest values of Megaport is the ability to provision service to Azure specifically from any location to any Azure region in less than a couple of minutes. Our business model complements the cloud business model: no lock-in contracts, pay-as-you-go services, and you only pay for what you need.” – Matt Simpson, Director of Global Cloud Strategy, Megaport.

...one of the biggest values of Megaport is the ability to provision service to Azure specifically from any location to any Azure region in less than a couple of minutes. Our business model complements the cloud business model: no lock-in contracts, pay-as-you-go services, and you only pay for what you need.

– Matt Simpson, Director of Global Cloud Strategy, Megaport

Working with Microsoft: extending the reach of Azure ExpressRoute

As a Microsoft partner, Megaport works in tandem with the ExpressRoute team who help facilitate connections between Megaport and local partners that help bring their service to market. By taking advantage of Microsoft’s regional connections to collaborate with these local partners, Megaport has developed a channel of organizations who assist in providing technical education and workshops centered around the value of ExpressRoute.

“The partnership between Microsoft and Megaport is truly mutually beneficial. We have an assigned ExpressRoute account management team who works with us in each of our regions and helps us align with local partners to help deliver managed services with our platform.” – Matt Simpson, Director of Global Cloud Strategy, Megaport

The value Megaport sees from their Microsoft partnership is just the tip of the iceberg for the two organizations as Megaport also brings considerable value to Microsoft by extending the value of the ExpressRoute service, evangelizing Azure in the process.

“On the other side, we help provide the ExpressRoute team with feedback on how to continue to improve the program. In the past, private datacenters were seen as a competitive threat to Microsoft. Now, they are seen as complementary to the service as customers using these datacenters want to connect to Azure for a true hybrid cloud solution.” – Matt Simpson, Director of Global Cloud Strategy, Megaport

The relationship between the two organizations—one that is characterized by honest feedback and collaboration—has enabled Microsoft and Megaport to work together on a number of go-to-market initiatives meant to evangelize the Azure ExpressRoute service. The two companies provide several workshops at the regional and local level that aim to help customers get over the hump in their cloud adoption process. The two partners also develop educational collateral around the service that they exchange freely to educate the customer.

One of the great things about our relationship with Microsoft is that both parties are very receptive to working with each other to get the message out. This attitude is mutually beneficial when looking to sell both Microsoft’s and Megaport’s services.

– Eric Troyer, Chief Marketing Officer, Megaport

“One of the great things about our relationship with Microsoft is that both parties are very receptive to working with each other to get the message out. This attitude is mutually beneficial when looking to sell both Microsoft’s and Megaport’s services. We have co-hosted a number of workshops where we have presented our technical solutions to get enterprises over the line in terms of cloud adoption—helping customers see where they can improve performance with Azure and where they can use cloud services to work as part of their overall IT strategy. Ultimately, more business for us means more business for Microsoft.” – Eric Troyer, Chief Marketing Officer, Megaport

Megaport provides additional value for their partners, many of whom are themselves part of the Microsoft partner community. The Megaport Portal includes a marketplace where several services are offered, many of which are provided by Managed Service Providers in the Microsoft partner ecosystem. Within that marketplace, Megaport helps expose their partners’ services while ultimately growing Azure in the background. Further, as part of their partner program, Megaport assists these partners by cooperating in joint press opportunities and workshops. In instances where Microsoft identifies a more involved P2P opportunity, Megaport meets with these partners on joint GTM plans.

True multi-platform cloud connectivity

One of the things that allows Megaport to stand out against their competitors is their commitment to a vendor-agnostic vision of the cloud. By consolidating multiple cloud vendors into a single user interface, Megaport enables their customers to quickly and simply deploy multi-cloud environments leveraging multiple public cloud options as well as their own datacenters which are all accessible from a single interface.

Advice for effectively partnering with Microsoft

What advice does Megaport have for other partners looking to make the most out of their Microsoft partnership?

“To get the most out of your partnership with Microsoft, it’s important to have a good understanding of their pain points. You need to know that the skillset you bring to the table is a skillset that they can use and specialize accordingly. From the ExpressRoute team in particular, we knew that they had struggled with connectivity and service providers who over-promised and under-delivered, and so, we keep it simple and specialize in what we know best. We are experts regarding Elastic Interconnection, and we highlight and stick to that expertise.” – Matt Simpson, Director of Global Cloud Strategy, Megaport

To get the most out of your partnership with Microsoft, it’s important to have a good understanding of their pain points. You need to know that the skillset you bring to the table is a skillset that they can use and specialize accordingly.